Egyptian Army Ends Morsi Protests

Last related: Egypt Exposes U.S. Hypocrisy to the Hilt

And Syria has sent it into the stratosphere.

"Family says army kidnapped Morsi" Associated Press, July 23, 2013

CAIRO — The family of Egypt’s ousted president lashed out at the military on Monday, accusing the generals of kidnapping Mohammed Morsi, who has been detained incommunicado in an unknown location for nearly three weeks.

Where is Egypt's Gitmo?

New violence erupted around protests by Morsi supporters demanding his reinstatement, killing at least four people. Pro-Morsi protesters marched near Cairo’s Tahrir Square and battled with Morsi opponents camped out in the square, trading stones and gunfire, while further clashes erupted in Qalioub.

The statement by Morsi’s family at a Cairo press conference underlined the unknown fate of Egypt’s first freely elected president. Morsi has not been seen and has had no known contact with lawyers, family, or supporters since the military ousted him on July 3 after mass protests nationwide demanding his removal.

Since his ouster, the Islamist leader has become a tool for both sides....

Sigh. Whatever, $hit jew$media.

The Muslim Brotherhood has sought to drum up sympathy by saying Morsi’s detention shows the military’s coup is taking the country into dictatorship, as it tries to expand street protests demanding he be reinstated as president.

Your first clue that my jewsmedia isn't a fan of the Brotherhood, a very important tell. Don't you have sympathy for those peacefully protesting people lying there in pools of blood dead.

Several hundred Islamists on Monday tried to march toward the US Embassy, passing near Tahrir Square. The clashes with Morsi foes blocked their march.

The foes are Mubarak thugs.

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"Blast injures 19 as Egyptian violence widens; 11 people slain since Monday; security growing more tenuous" by Aya Batrawy and Hamza Hendawi |  Associated Press, July 24, 2013

CAIRO — A bomb blast outside the security headquarters in one of Egypt’s Nile Delta cities wounded 19 people, security officials said early Wednesday, raising fears of deteriorating security after President Mohammed Morsi’s ouster.

Eleven people have been killed in clashes between supporters and opponents of the ousted president since Monday. Most were killed in pre-dawn street battles near a pro-Morsi protest camp as the country remained mired in turmoil three weeks after the military overthrew the Islamist leader.

The bloodshed is widening the divisions between Morsi’s supporters and the military-backed administration and diminishing the chances of reconciliation.

And who benefits there?

The police force, widely hated for its brutality and widespread abuses over the years, has been the target of fierce attacks in Egypt’s volatile northern Sinai Peninsula.

Wednesday’s bomb explosion appeared to target police in the provincial capital city of Mansoura in the delta province of Dakahliya. It raised the specter that indiscriminate attacks targeting security forces could expand beyond traditional targets in northern Sinai.

And jwho would just might want to take back the Sinai (and maybe just a little bit more, to the Nile, say) for security reasons?

Security officials said 19 people were wounded, 13 policemen and six civilians, when the bomb outside the security directorate exploded after midnight. The city was bustling with people as is common during the Islamic month of Ramadan, when Muslims fast during the day and stay up late eating and praying.

See: Slow Saturday Special: Ramadan Feast

Police officials exchanged gunfire with unidentified people inside a nearby abandoned building afterward. No further details were immediately available.

I wonder if it was the Black Bloc.

Presidential spokesman Ahmad al-Muslimani released a statement calling the attack an act of terrorism.... 

I'm smelling false flag provocation.

Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood party condemned the attack in a statement posted on the group’s website and vowed to hold peaceful protests, saying they would not be dragged into violence.

I believe them.

Morsi’s continued detention fuels anger among his supporters. Egypt’s first freely elected leader has been held incommunicado and without charge.

Running street battles that began before dawn on Tuesday were among the most intense since the crisis began on July 3.

Clashes broke out after Morsi supporters began marching from their sit-in outside the main campus of Cairo University to a nearby mosque. The protesters blocked roads, causing massive traffic jams and angering residents.

Security officials said the fighting turned deadly after masked gunmen appeared and started shooting at the Morsi supporters with live ammunition and birdshot.

Either Black Bloc or Mubarak thugs!

The officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information, had no word on the identity of the gunmen.

This is pointless, readers. Responding to endless government vagueness and obfuscation is useless.

The Muslim Brotherhood, however, blamed the killings on ‘‘thugs’’ sponsored by the Interior Ministry, a charge the Islamist group from which Morsi hails often uses to dismiss the notion that it was at odds with other segments of the population....

Look at my jewspaper practically telling me the Brotherhood can't be believed. 

I know they are Saudi- and Qatar-funded entities with their own agendas, but any notion they are under the control of western intelligence or a tool of Israel these days is foolishness. Look at the treatment they are getting in my jewspaper. 

One would think the Saudis and Qatar would wake up and realize that AFTER SYRIA and IRAN, YOU are NEXT! And you thought serving USrael would protect you!

Morsi’s ouster followed massive street protests by millions of Egyptians demanding that the Islamist president step down.

Some of those same tools are now in jail cells by the same military they cheered. I hope they learn their lesson real good.

His supporters are calling for his reinstatement and insist they will not join the military-backed political process until then. 

What else can they do, really? Everyone always says if you are unhappy take to the streets. Well? What were they supposed to do, just accept the oppression and illegitimate coup?

The latest violence underlines the depth of the polarization in Egypt. The deposed president’s family denounced the military in a Monday news conference, accusing it of ‘‘kidnapping’’ him, and European diplomats urged that he be released.

In a separate development, two rights groups — Human Rights Watch and Amnesty International — urged Egyptian authorities to investigate a spate of attacks against Christians following Morsi’s ouster and bring their perpetrators to account.

Related: Copting Out on This Post 

I'm a Christian and I don't even like them anymore. I see a CIA tool now.

Also see: Who Owns the Future? 

Not "Islamists," at least not the near term.

At least six Christians have been killed and scores injured in at least six provinces since July 3. The worst was in a village near the ancient city of Luxor, where four Christians were killed and three injured at the hands of a mob of Islamists.

So we are told by the sectarian-shoveling jewspaper -- and I no longer believe it regarding people who have lived centuries together and even intermarried.

Other attacks included the shooting death of a priest in the Sinai town of el-Arish and the destruction and looting of Christian homes and stores in Minya province south of Cairo. A church was also targeted in Minya.

‘‘A thorough, impartial and independent investigation must be conducted into the events in Luxor and the grossly inadequate response of the security forces to the attack,’’ according to Amnesty.

‘‘Authorities should hold accountable the people responsible for the sectarian killings and attacks on houses of worship and property, and investigate whether security forces took inadequate measures to prevent or stop the attacks,’’ Human Rights Watch said.

Blah, blah, blah.  

Who is behind Human Rights Watch anyway? 

No wonder it is always making so many appearances in my jewspaper.

--more--"

"Egyptian general calls for mass demonstrations; Seeks ‘mandate’; raises concerns about his goals" by Kareem Fahim and Mayy El Sheikh |  New York Times, July 25, 2013

CAIRO — The commander of the armed forces asked Egyptians on Wednesday to hold mass demonstrations that would give him a “mandate” to confront violence and terrorism, appealing to one side of Egypt’s sharply divided populace and raising the specter of broader unrest.

Using violence and terrorism, but putting that aside I was told by my s*** media here that he was already given the mandate with the coup-instigating protests. Why does he need to ask for one now, unless.... damn, lied to again!

During a speech to recent military graduates, the commander, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, warned of forces taking the country into a “dark tunnel,” a clear reference to Islamist supporters of the deposed president, Mohammed Morsi, and he asked Egyptians to protest on Friday.

“I’m asking you to show the world,” he said. “If violence is sought, or terrorism is sought, the military and the police are authorized to confront this.”

The military and police are the violent terrorists.

The call for mass mobilization thrust the general into the center of Egypt’s contentious politics, raising questions about his ambitions while contradicting the military’s pledges to defer to civilian leaders after removing Morsi.

Oh, I don't care about all this inside baseball politics of Egypt shit!

His appeal also hinted at a broader crackdown against Islamists, whose leaders have already been detained.

As the Muslim Brotherhood planned competing protests on Friday, Egyptians faced another threat of bloody street clashes in what has become a long and wearying cycle.

It appears to be the price of freedom and independence.

The Brotherhood said the general’s speech amounted to a call for “civil war.”

Michael Wahid Hanna, who studies Egyptian politics at the Century Foundation, a left-leaning policy group, said the speech was “pretty ominous.”

I really don't care what the "left" in Egypt has to say since they are either tools of western intelligence or the most unwitting dupes ever born.

“At best this was an irresponsible effort to isolate the Muslim Brotherhood, to gain leverage in whatever negotiations ensue,” he said. “At worst, it will green-light violence at lower levels and potentially provide a mandate to use force to break up the sit-in,” a reference to the Cairo encampment of Morsi’s supporters.

“Neither of those things is good,” Hanna added.

Wednesday’s developments cemented a standoff between the Brotherhood and the military that started after the generals removed Morsi from power on July 3. Since then, the military has held Morsi incommunicado in an undisclosed location, ignoring calls from Western allies and the United Nations to release him. An interim government has pressed ahead quickly, securing financial aid and beginning the process of amending the constitution, while trying to fend off questions about its own legitimacy.

That means they TOOK the IMF OFFER that Morsi had rejected!

The Brotherhood has adopted an increasingly confrontational stance to support its effort to restore Morsi to power. The group’s sit-ins have given way to daily marches, many of which have been attacked by shadowy armed groups. Other marches are clearly intended to provoke a response.

How much more Muslim-hating, slanted jew$hit do you need to see?

While Sissi’s speech intensified Islamist fears about the return of a police state, it may well have strengthened the Brotherhood’s hand.

Yeah, Egypt is back to "normal."

“The Brotherhood needs the repression to get worse, to effectively make their case to the broader public,” said Shadi Hamid, a researcher at the Brookings Doha Center in Qatar who studies the group.

Brotherhood leaders quickly seized on the speech as evidence that Sissi was Egypt’s new dictator, saying that the country had returned to “fascist military rule that confiscates the people’s freedom, sovereignty, and dignity.”

“We hold General Sissi completely responsible for any blood that is shed from any Egyptian citizen, as well as for deepening national division,” the group said.

The arguments between the Islamists and the military, as well as Sissi’s turn in the spotlight, further sidelined Egypt’s civilian government, which was mostly silent Wednesday.

A conference on Wednesday that the government billed as an effort at national reconciliation was overshadowed by the speech. It was also boycotted by the very Islamist forces, including the Brotherhood, whose grievances have widened Egypt’s divide.

Neither the interim president nor the prime minister spoke publicly about the general’s call for mass protests. On Wednesday evening, a spokesman for the president was quoted in the state newspaper praising the military.

“Egypt started the war on terrorism, and the call of General el-Sissi is to protect the revolution and the state,” said the spokesman.

Hours before Sissi’s speech, unidentified attackers bombed a police station north of Cairo, raising the specter of a new kind of political violence....

They don't even know who did it and they are implicating the MB.

The speech, by turns paternal and confrontational, was largely devoted to rebutting criticism that the general had betrayed Morsi, who promoted him nearly a year ago....

Related: Slow Saturday Special: New Egyptian General a-Sissy 

Stabbed him in the back!

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"Islamist leader sharply denounces Egypt’s military chief; Says president’s ouster worse than destroying shrine" by Hamza Hendawi and Sarah El Deeb |  Associated Press, July 26, 2013

CAIRO — The Muslim Brotherhood’s leader made an unusually harsh attack on Egypt’s military chief on Thursday, saying his ouster of President Mohammed Morsi was worse than destroying the Kaaba, Islam’s holiest shrine.

The analogy appeared aimed at whipping up religious sentiments among Morsi’s Islamist supporters on the eve of mass rallies called by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi as a show of support for planned action by the military and the police to stop ‘‘violence and terrorism.’’

Sissi’s call was widely interpreted by both sides as a prelude to a crackdown on the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamists who have been camped out for about a month at sit-ins in Cairo and elsewhere calling for Morsi’s return.

That has increased fears of a violent confrontation. Islamists also plan pro-Morsi rallies on Friday, raising the possibility of street clashes with their opponents. Running street battles have killed dozens in recent weeks.

Who benefits?

Ahead of Friday’s rallies, White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the United States was ‘‘concerned by any rhetoric that inflames tensions and could possible lead to violence.’’

Then you shouldn't have sanctioned the coup.

He urged Egyptian security forces to exercise ‘‘maximum restraint’’ and prevent clashes between opposing demonstrators.

But there is also widespread confusion over the military’s intentions. Sissi’s move to show the extent of pro-military sentiment could also be aimed at pressuring the Islamists to roll back their demand for Morsi’s reinstatement.

Divisions between the two sides grew even more entrenched. The youth group behind the wave of protests that led to the July 3 military coup against Morsi threw its support behind Sissi’s call, urging Egyptians to participate in Friday’s demonstrations.

‘‘Whoever wants to genuinely complete the revolution must be out in the squares and in all the provinces,’’ said Mahmoud Badr, spokesman for Tamarod, or Rebel in Arabic.

In a new statement Thursday, the military sought to explain its intentions, suggesting that its aim was not a direct confrontation with Morsi’s supporters but an iron fist against any sign of violence that opponents have blamed on the pro-Morsi camp.

Military spokesman Colonel Ahmed Mohammed Ali said Sissi’s call was ‘‘not a threat to any specific political group.’’ He said the military respects peaceful protests but that any sign of violence or terrorism will be ‘‘dealt with decisively and with force.’’

He said a national reconciliation conference and a system of transitional justice, called for by interim military-backed President Adly Mansour, are the only way out of Egypt’s situation. 

The only way out is to stop reading the Boston Globe. This is s***.

Nearly 200 people have been killed since Morsi’s fall more than three weeks ago in the latest wave of violence to roil Egypt since the February 2011 toppling of autocrat Hosni Mubarak amid a popular uprising.

Some prodemocracy activists have raised concerns about the military’s call.

Fuck them at this point! They didn't like the results of democracy, and were complaining from the start.

--more--"

"Morsi charged with role in 2011 prison break; Protests escalate on both sides" by Kareem Fahim and Robert F. Worth |  Associated Press, July 27, 2013

CAIRO — As millions protested in dueling rallies across Egypt on Friday, the state news media reported that former president Mohamed Morsi was being investigated on accusations of conspiring with the Palestinian militant group Hamas in a prison break in 2011.

The new Egyptian government puckering up to Israel's ass here.

The accusations appeared to signal a shift away from any sort of accommodation with the Muslim Brotherhood, despite intense mediation efforts by Western and Arab diplomats since the military ousted Morsi and declared a new government. Morsi has been detained incommunicado for three weeks.

Instead, the military has moved toward formal criminal charges and a broader effort to crush the Brotherhood politically, analysts say, in moves that could portend further violence. Well over 100 people have been killed in street clashes over the past month. On July 8, police officers and soldiers opened fire on a group of Morsi supporters, killing 62.

Morsi and the Brotherhood are accused of working with Hamas to carry out an attack on a prison northwest of Cairo in 2011 that freed Morsi and about 30 other members of the group during the uprising against former president Hosni Mubarak....

Military intelligence agents are trying to determine whether Morsi gave sensitive state information to Islamist allies abroad or to the Brotherhood. The investigators also are looking into the secret finances of the Brotherhood and its funding channels abroad.

Qatar and Saudi money.

Millions of people turned out for pro-army demonstrations in several cities, with far smaller numbers appearing at pro-Morsi rallies, the AP said. The demonstrations were largely peaceful, but officials said five people were killed and two dozen injured in Alexandria. 

I'm so sick of the slant!!!!!!!!!

Egypt’s defense minister, General Abdul-Fattah el-Sisi, had called for mass demonstrations to take place Friday, saying that the public support would give him a “mandate” to fight terrorism — a phrase used here to refer to crackdowns on the Brotherhood.

The Brotherhood has remained defiant, demanding Morsi’s reinstatement as a precondition for any negotiations and mounting daily demonstrations....

“This is a preparation for eliminating the Brotherhood,” said Emad Shahin, a political science professor at American University in Cairo. “And of course it reduces the chance of Morsi coming back in any way.”

In Tahrir Square in Cairo, a vast throng gathered under a baking sun and stayed into the night to cheer Sisi. Early in the day, military helicopters hovered low over the crowd, earning delighted cheers. Protesters hugged the soldiers guarding entrances to the square, and posed for pictures with them.

I hope they hug the ones guarding their jail cells.

The authorities had delayed the broadcast of TV serials during the day for the holy month of Ramadan to encourage people to join anti-Brotherhood demonstrations.

There had been widespread fears that the two protesting groups would collide violently, but as of late evening, the only serious clashes appeared to be in the port city of Alexandria, where the Egyptian media reported that one protester had been killed.

Morsi, whose face regularly appears on enormous banners in Islamist marches across the country, was arrested during the uprising against Mubarak’s regime and held for two days at the Waid Natroun prison, where the jail break occurred.

He is being investigated on charges of conspiring with Hamas in “hostile acts,” including the kidnapping and killing of police officers and soldiers at the prison, according to a report on the website of Egypt’s state newspaper, Al Ahram.

The accusations — which have been played up by his political opponents for some time — gained little traction until after Morsi was deposed, and have been dismissed by human rights groups as political.

Gotta love that Egyptian justice system!

The announcement of charges may also be aimed at relieving international pressure on the Egyptian authorities to release Morsi. On Wednesday, the United Nations secretary general, Ban Ki-moon, joined the United States, the European Union, and other bodies in expressing concern about Morsi’s unexplained detention after his ouster as president.

They are only concerned because it could one day mean one of them in jail, right? They don't care about all the other people languishing in jail.

In a statement, Salah al-Bardaweel, a spokesman for Hamas, denounced the charges and challenged Egyptian prosecutors to present evidence that the group had any involvement with the prison breaks.

They haven't presented any evidence?

Gehad el-Haddad, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, said that the investigation amounted to a repudiation of the revolt that toppled Mubarak and “might increase the number of angry people on the ground.”

In Tahrir Square, a stronghold for Morsi’s opponents, many in the crowd seemed heartened by news of the detention and legal accusations.

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"Security forces kill at least 72 Egyptian Islamists; Kerry, Hagel call on military to rein in violence" by Kareem Fahim and Mayy El-Sheikh |  New York Times, July 28, 2013

CAIRO — The Egyptian authorities unleashed a ferocious attack on Islamist protesters early Saturday, killing at least 72 people in the second mass killing of demonstrators in three weeks and the deadliest attack by the security services since Egypt’s uprising in early 2011.

And the U.S. was the first one out there condemning it and saying we must invade, we must have air strikes, we must send cruise missiles in, we must pock the place with drones, this moral obscenity can not stand, blah, blah, blah, blah.

The attack provided further evidence that Egypt’s security establishment was reasserting its dominance after President Mohammed Morsi’s ouster three weeks ago, and widening its crackdown on his Islamist allies in the Muslim Brotherhood. The tactics — many victims were killed with gunshot wounds to the head or the chest — suggested that Egypt’s security services felt no need to show any restraint.

“They had orders to shoot to kill,” said Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood spokesman. The message, he said, was, “This is the new regime.”

Certainly the United States was out front on this like it was in Iran a few years ago?!

In Washington, Secretary of State John Kerry called this “a pivotal moment for Egypt” and urged its leaders “to help their country take a step back from the brink.”

Related: The Kerry Chronicles: No Excuse For Egyptian Comment  

Actually, there is no excuse for that walking and talking shit stain known as John Kohn Kerry.

The killings occurred a day after hundreds of thousands of Egyptians marched in support of the military, responding to a call by its commander for a “mandate” to fight terrorism. The appeal by Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, who has emerged as Egypt’s de facto leader since the military removed Morsi from power, was widely seen as a green light to the security forces to increase their repression of the Islamists.

In the attack Saturday, civilians joined police officers in firing live ammunition at the protesters. By early morning, the flood of wounded people had overwhelmed doctors at a nearby field hospital.

One doctor sat by himself, crying as he whispered verses from the Quran. Nearby, medics tried to revive a man on a gurney. When they failed he was quickly lifted away, to make room for the many others.

With hundreds of people gravely wounded, the toll seemed certain to rise, and by Saturday evening had surpassed the more than 60 deaths on July 8, when soldiers and police officers fired on pro-Morsi demonstrators.

As the deaths have mounted, more than 200 since the government was overthrown, hopes have faded for a political solution to the standoff between the military and the Brotherhood, whose leaders, including Morsi, are imprisoned or preparing themselves for jail.

In a televised news conference hours after the clash, Interior Minister Mohamed Ibrahim absolved his men of any responsibility. His officers, he said, “have never and will never shoot a bullet on any Egyptian.”

And if some Egyptian Cabinet criminal says it, well, it must be true!

He blamed the Brotherhood for the deaths, referring to its leaders as “those who preach and incite violence.”

I'm sure he would blame a woman for rape, too.

And he suggested that further repression was imminent as the authorities prepared to break up sit-ins that thousands of Morsi’s supporters have held for weeks.

Ibrahim said he hoped the protesters would be “reasonable” and remove themselves voluntarily to avoid further bloodshed....

Yeah, just accept your oppression!

Mohamed ElBaradei, the Nobel Peace Prize laureate who is vice president in the interim government, added a rare note of support for the Brotherhood from the country’s new leaders, writing on Twitter that he condemned the “excessive use of force” and was trying to “end the standoff in a peaceful manner.”

Fuck him! He is one that helped initiate the coup!

Kerry called on Egypt’s leaders “to respect the right of peaceful assembly and freedom of expression” and to open an inclusive political dialogue.

“Over two years ago, a revolution began. Its final verdict is not yet decided, but it will be forever impacted by what happens right now,” he said in a statement.

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel spoke by telephone with el-Sissi, urging him to exercise restraint and “take steps to prevent further bloodshed and loss of life,” according to a Pentagon statement.

Somebody say something?

The violence broke out Friday night after a day of large, competing marches by supporters of Morsi and his opponents expressing solidarity with the military. At least eight people died Friday, but there was not the kind of widespread violence that many had feared after el-Sissi’s speech Wednesday calling for demonstrations in support of the military.

That changed around 10:30 p.m., when groups of Morsi’s supporters left their vast encampment in Nasr City, marching toward the central October 6 Bridge, where police officers were stationed, according to witnesses. Several people said the protesters had left the camp because it had become overcrowded, and that people had fanned out from the encampment along several boulevards. Others said they had planned to march through a nearby neighborhood.

The group that came under attack walked down Nasr Street, past the reviewing stand where President Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981, and the pyramid-shaped memorial to the unknown soldier across the street, toward the bridge.

See: Truth and secrets: The Sadat assassination trial 24 years on 

Who benefited?

“We didn’t have any weapons,” said Mohamed Abdulhadi, who said he had joined the march, which was “not violent.” More than 10 other witnesses confirmed his assertion.

The Interior Ministry released a video after the killings that it said showed Morsi supporters firing birdshot at the police and damaging property. It showed protesters throwing rocks, unidentified people wandering into traffic, and one man pulling out what appeared to be a silver pistol and firing it, although it is not clear who the man was or which side of the fighting he was on.

Then it's either a complete forgery, a staged and scripted distortion, or previous footage. 

I hate to be the one to tell you all this, but NO ONE BELIEVES TOOLS of the EUSRAELI EMPIRE anymore!

Mohamed Saeed, 27, an agricultural engineer, said he and some of the other protesters had started to exchange words with the officers before even reaching the bridge.

“You know how it is,” he said. “Some of us said some provocative things, and the tear gas started.” The protesters threw rocks, and the confrontation quickly escalated, Saeed and others said. The Morsi supporters feared that the police were preparing to storm their encampment, so they started building brick walls on the road to “to prevent them from coming into the sit-in,” Saeed said.

An hour and a half after the clashes started, the police and their allies started firing live ammunition and pellet guns, Saeed said. Other witnesses said they had seen snipers on the roofs of nearby buildings.

Later Saturday, the Health Ministry said 72 people had been killed. The Brotherhood said it had counted 66 dead and classified an additional 61 people as “clinically dead.”

The violence left the Brotherhood in an increasingly dire position, facing the prospect of a ban of the kind it suffered before the uprising against President Hosni Mubarak.

Egypt is going BACKWARDS!

Its options at this point are limited, said Samer S. Shehata, a professor of Arab politics at the University of Oklahoma and an authority on the group. “They really can’t resort to violence,” he said. “They don’t have a militia and it runs against all their rhetoric and recent history.”

And yet I'm fed the terrorist line from the new military government!

Ibrahim, the interior minister, raised the prospect of a new threat to the Brotherhood, saying Saturday that he was reconstituting a state security agency that under Mubarak was responsible for monitoring Islamists and known for carrying out torture and forced disappearances. Without security agencies that have a political focus, Ibrahim said, “the security of the country doesn’t work.”

And the U.S. has not a thing to say about it.

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"Egypt steps up pressure on supporters of Morsi; Government may give troops power to arrest civilians" by Hamza Hendawi |  Associated Press, July 29, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s interim government said Sunday that it may give the military the right to arrest civilians, in what officials said could be a prelude to a major crackdown on supporters of ousted president Mohammed Morsi and on militants who have attacked security forces.

In a decree that was published in the government’s official gazette Sunday, interim President Adly Mansour gave the prime minister, Hazem el-Belbawi, the authority to allow civilian arrests by the military.

Civilians, sometimes with weapons, frequently join police in Cairo demonstrations. In some cases, they appear to be plainclothes police; in others, residents who back the security forces.

Then this is a meaningless decree. They were all absolved above.

Deadly clashes broke out Sunday during funerals of slain Morsi supporters in the cities of Kafr el-Zayat and Port Said.

Mohammed Badie, the supreme leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, urged his followers to stand fast after more than 80 of them were killed in weekend violence. ‘‘Don’t be sad and don’t despair,’’ he said in a message to followers posted on his website.

The extent of the bloodshed has dashed hopes of reconciliation between the country’s two camps, sharply divided over the July 3 military coup that removed Egypt’s first freely elected president following protests by millions of Egyptians demanding he step down.

Islamists staunchly reject the new leadership and insist the only possible solution to the crisis is to reinstate Morsi. Meanwhile, the interim leadership is pushing ahead with a fast-track transition plan to return to a democratically elected government by early next year.

Pffft!

Interior Minister Mohammed Ibrahim, who is in charge of the police, also pledged to deal decisively with any attempts to destabilize the country, a thinly veiled warning to Morsi supporters occupying two squares in Cairo in a monthlong standoff with security forces.

Ibrahim, who was a member of Morsi’s Cabinet and kept his post in the new interim administration, accused the pro-Morsi side of provoking bloodshed to win sympathy....

Made 'em do it, yup. They made your men kill them. 

Sorry, but that's more Israel's shtick.

The international community, meanwhile, urged restraint.

Secretary of State John Kerry issued a strongly worded statement on Saturday, saying he told Egyptian authorities it is ‘‘essential’’ they respect the right to peaceful protest. He called on all sides to enter a ‘‘meaningful political dialogue’’ to ‘‘help their country take a step back from the brink.’’

Did someone say something?

The worst bout of violence since Morsi’s ouster took place Saturday when police and armed men in civilian clothes opened fire on his supporters as they sought to expand their sit-in camp.

An official at Cairo’s main morgue put the death toll from the violence at 83 after the facility received 11 more bodies Sunday afternoon.

Authorities conceded that the vast majority of those killed in Cairo were demonstrators.

How nice of them to concede that point.

--more--"

"Top EU diplomat presses sides in Egypt conflict; Process should include Islamists, Ashton insists" by Sarah El Deeb |  Associated Press,  July 30, 2013

CAIRO — Europe’s top diplomat on Monday searched for a way out of Egypt’s increasingly bloody and complex crisis, looking for compromises in talks with the military-backed government and allies of the ousted president.

Supporters of Mohammed Morsi, the deposed president, appealed for an end to a crackdown that killed 83 protesters over the weekend, calling for a political settlement instead.

Ahead of her visit to Egypt, European Union foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton deplored the loss of life and appealed for a political process that includes all groups, including Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

There were no signs that any side in the complicated conflict was willing to heed her calls. The Brotherhood rejected calls to work with the new leaders and called for new demonstrations on Tuesday, the government made no conciliatory gestures, and Morsi remained in custody in an unknown location. He has not been seen since the military coup that ousted him on July 3.

Why should the MB have to make concessions? They are the VICTIMS here!!!

On Monday Ashton began a three-day mission, her second since the military made its move.

Ashton’s visit and calls by US Secretary of State John Kerry underscored the sense of urgency in the international community, whose leaders are pushing for an inclusive political process that ends violence. 

I can't continue to read this s***ty swill, sorry. 

Yeah, the war-mongering West that created this situation whining about it now for public relations and image purposes.

In a sign of tensions and lawlessness that have gripped Egypt during two years of political turmoil, a dispute ended with the deaths of 15 people late Monday in Cairo. A shopkeeper shot and killed two men who spread goods in the ground in front of his store. Their colleagues set fire to the store, killing the man and 12 of his workers, police said.

Ashton made no comments after her meetings Monday with the defense chief, General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, the interim president, Adly Mansour, and his vice president, Mohammed ElBaradei. She also met for more than an hour with representatives from Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood.

State Department spokeswoman Jen Psaki said Kerry spoke with Ashton and Egyptian leaders on Monday, reinforcing her message for inclusiveness.

‘‘I think we've been very clear that we believe an inclusive process means the participation of all parties. And certainly the detainment of many members of the Muslim Brotherhood, including Mr. Morsi, makes it difficult to move forward with that,’’ Psaki told reporters in Washington.

Did her tongue turn to sand when she told that lie?

She said the United States believes Ashton should have access to Morsi while she is in Egypt.

The Brotherhood and its allies insist that Morsi be returned to office. Despite the demonstrations, the military-backed government is pushing ahead with a transition plan to lead to elections early next year. At the same time, security officials and promilitary media have increasingly depicted the Islamists’ protests as a threat to public safety.

After their talks with Ashton, a delegation of Islamist politicians representing the pro-Morsi camp said those now in power must take the first step toward any reconciliation by releasing jailed Brotherhood leaders, ending the crackdown on their protests, and stopping media campaigns against Islamists.

‘‘Creating the atmosphere requires those in authority now to send messages of reassurance,’’ Mohammed Mahsoub, of the Islamist Wasat Party, told reporters.

One of the thorniest issues toward reconciliation is the detention of several Brotherhood leaders and other prominent Islamists since Morsi’s ouster.

On Sunday, authorities arrested two figures from the Brotherhood-allied Wasat Party. Speaking alongside a Brotherhood official and another Islamist politician, Mahsoub appeared to be sticking by the demand to reinstate Morsi by saying any solution must be on a ‘‘constitutional basis.’’

--more--"

"EU official says Morsi is doing ‘well’" by Kareem Fahim and Rick Gladstone |  New York Times, July 31, 2013

CAIRO — The European Union’s foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, said Tuesday that Mohammed Morsi was doing well and that they had discussed the situation in Egypt during their talks Monday, which was the first time that Morsi, the former president, had been allowed to meet with an international diplomat since the military took him into custody almost a month ago.

At a news conference Tuesday, Ashton said that visiting Morsi had been a condition for her trip to Egypt, and that Egyptian officials “freely offered” her the opportunity.

“He’s well,” Ashton said, adding that she spoke with Morsi for two hours. “We had a friendly and open and very frank discussion. He has access to information in terms of TV, newspapers, so we were able to talk about the situation, and we were able to talk about the need to move forward.”

Translation: you can forget about a return to power, and I can't even get you released.  

Yeah, let's just MOVE ALONG, says the EU chief!

Ashton said she did not know where he was being held and said that she did not want to characterize their conversation any further, “because in the circumstances, he cannot correct me if I do it wrongly.”

That's a lame excuse.

Morsi has not been seen in public since July 3, when Egypt’s military removed him from power, taking him and several of his aides into custody and holding them without charge. Members of his family said they had not been allowed to communicate with him. For weeks, the military resisted calls to release Morsi as a good-will gesture to his supporters, who have held continuous sit-ins demanding that he be restored to the presidency.

--more--"

"Egypt decrees that pro-Morsi sit-ins be dispersed" by Mayy El Sheikh and Rick Gladstone |  New York Times, August 01, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s military-led government instructed its security forces Wednesday to end two large sit-ins in the capital by supporters of the deposed Islamist president, a decree that risked a new round of violent convulsions in the country’s political crisis.

In a televised statement, the interim Cabinet said the sit-ins in support of the deposed president, Mohammed Morsi, were disruptive and represented “a threat to the Egyptian national security and an unacceptable terrorizing of citizens.”

It is YOU who are TERRORIZING PEOPLE!

Tens of thousands of Muslim Brotherhood members and sympathizers have been occupying two large squares in Cairo — Rabaa Al Adaweya and Nahdet Masr — to protest the July 3 ouster of Morsi, the country’s first freely elected president.

The protesters have vowed to stay in the squares until he is released from detention and reinstated in office.

 It worked in Venezuela in 2002.

That outcome has looked increasingly improbable, as the interim authorities have expanded a crackdown on the Brotherhood and have moved to oust Islamists appointed by Morsi from government posts.

Yeah, Egypt isn't Venezuela.

More than 140 pro-Morsi demonstrators were killed by security forces in violent confrontations in Cairo July 8 and this past Saturday, further polarizing a country in the throes of its worst crisis since the revolution that toppled Morsi’s autocratic predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, in February 2011.

Rights groups denounced the interim Cabinet’s decree as a new provocation to violence.

“Given the Egyptian security forces’ record of policing demonstrations with the routine use of excessive and unwarranted lethal force, this latest announcement gives a seal of approval to further abuse,” Amnesty International said in a statement on its website, calling the decree a “recipe for further bloodshed.”

That would be a U.S. seal of approval.

The interim Cabinet’s televised statement, read by the country’s minister of media, Doreyya Sharaf el-Din, appeared intended to establish a legal basis for dispersing the sit-ins by force.

Everything Hitler did was legal, too.

The minister said the decree was necessary because of “the huge mandate given to the state by the people in dealing with the terrorism and the violence that threaten the dissolution of the state and the collapse of the homeland, and in order to protect the national security and higher interest of the country and the social peace and the safety of citizens.”

Then why did Sissi ask for a mandate? As for the rest, failure!

She said the Interior Ministry had been instructed “to take all the necessary measures in that regard within the framework of the provisions of the Constitution and the law.”

Which Constitution would that be, the one you guys ripped up and threw out?

The Obama administration, which has been engaged in a balancing act on how to deal with the Egypt crisis, expressed concern about the new decree. Asked about it at a daily State Department briefing in Washington, the deputy spokeswoman, Marie Harf, said: “We have continued to urge the interim government officials and security forces to respect the right of peaceful assembly. That obviously includes sit-ins.”

Whatever.

On Tuesday, two Republican senators, Lindsey Graham and John McCain, frequent critics of President Obama, said he had asked them to visit Egypt next week to help persuade the interim leaders to move forward with new elections and an inclusive government. The senators said they would convey a bipartisan message from the United States, which has regarded Egypt as a crucial Arab ally in the Middle East for decades and provides $1.5 billion in annual aid.

No parti$anship there!

Morsi has been detained by the military since he was overthrown and his whereabouts kept secret.

Ashton knows.

--more--"

Also see: Egypt authorities offer 'safe passage' to ex-President Morsi's supporters if they end sit-ins

Is that anything like Chicago's?

"Egypt officials say time short for protests; Trial date is set for jailed leader of Brotherhood" by Hamza Hendawi |  Associated Press, August 05, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s highest security council warned Sunday that the clock is ticking for a peaceful end to the standoff over sit-ins by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, suggesting that authorities will break up the protests unless mediation efforts produce results soon.

More than a month after the military overthrew Morsi, thousands of the Islamist leader’s supporters remain camped out in two main crossroads in Cairo demanding his reinstatement.

Also Sunday, authorities announced that a court case accusing the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and his powerful deputy of inciting violence will start Aug. 25. Morsi hails from the Brotherhood.

Egypt’s state news agency said Brotherhood leader Mohammed Badie and his deputy Khairat el-Shater are to stand trial for complicity and incitement in the killing of eight demonstrators outside the group’s Cairo headquarters. Badie is at still large, and Shater is in custody.

And yet the military that pulled the trigger is absolved.

Deputy Secretary of State William Burns, who is visiting Cairo, urged all sides to find a peaceful resolution to the standoff. He asked them to avoid a repeat of violence that has killed more than 250 people — at least 130 of whom were pro-Morsi protesters shot dead by security forces — since the July 3 military coup.

Also Sunday, US officials said Secretary of State John Kerry has recommended that Robert S. Ford serve as the next US ambassador to Egypt. Ford, who grew up in Denver, is well known for his role as ambassador to Syria, where he challenged President Bashar Assad’s crackdown before US diplomats were pulled out for their own safety. Most recently, Ford has served as the top US envoy to the Syrian opposition.

Related: US government targeting Egypt for destabilization, eventual destruction?

Nope, only the Brotherhood if history is any guide.

The Egyptian interim government signaled Sunday that its patience with the pro-Morsi sit-ins was running out....

Never a good thing coming from the mouths of government.

--more--"

"Egypt threatens a crackdown" by Aya Batrawy |  Associated Press, August 08, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s military-backed interim leadership proclaimed Wednesday that a crackdown against two protest sites is inevitable, saying that nearly two weeks of foreign diplomatic efforts to peacefully resolve its standoff with the Muslim Brotherhood have failed.

The government’s statements strongly suggested that Egypt’s sharp polarization may spiral into even more bloodshed as thousands of supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi, a longtime Brotherhood figure, camp out at two main Cairo intersections and hold daily protests outside security buildings. 

I applaud the Brotherhood for its bravery.

At stake is stability in the Arab world’s most populous country. Already more than 250 people have been killed in violence since the military ousted Morsi last month, including at least 130 Brotherhood supporters in two major clashes between security forces and backers of the deposed president.

‘‘The decision agreed on by all to clear the sit-ins is final and irreversible,’’ Prime Minister Hazem el-Beblawi said on state television, reading a statement issued by the Egyptian Cabinet.

In response, top Muslim Brotherhood figure Mohammed el-Beltagy said the protesters are determined to keep up the sit-ins.

‘‘What we care about is for there to be clear talks about our position against the military coup and the importance of returning legitimacy,’’ Beltagy said at the main protest site in the capital’s Nasr City neighborhood. He said the Cabinet’s statement makes ‘‘clear that they lack vision with regard to the political scene.’’

A joint statement released late Wednesday by Secretary of State John Kerry and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton called for a peaceful resolution to the conflict. ‘‘We remain concerned and troubled that government and opposition leaders have not yet found a way to break a dangerous stalemate and agree to implement tangible confidence building measures,’’ the statement said.

‘‘The Egyptian government bears a special responsibility to begin this process to ensure the safety and welfare of its citizens,’’ it said. ‘‘Now is not the time to assess blame, but to take steps that can help initiate a dialogue.’’ 

I wish they would just shut up.

It is unclear what the government’s crackdown on the sit-ins would entail or when it would begin, but it appeared unlikely to start until next week.

That is jewspaperspeak for two days.

The Cabinet statement said the government was keen not to take action during the holy month of Ramadan, which ends Wednesday to be followed by four days of Eid celebrations.

A flurry of diplomatic visits by envoys from the United States, the European Union, and the Arab Gulf states ended in deadlock.

--more--"

"Morsi’s wife tells crowd of protesters to remain defiant; Appearance is first since ouster of Egypt’s leader" by Maggie Michael and Tony G. Gabriel |  Associated Press, August 09, 2013

CAIRO — The wife of Egypt’s ousted President Mohammed Morsi told thousands of his supporters Thursday to remain defiant in the face of the military-backed government’s warnings that security forces will clear the ongoing protests, promising her husband ‘‘is coming back, God willing.’’

Related: Egypt's Modest First Mom

Naglaa Mahmoud made her first appearance since the July 3 military ouster, which followed mass rallies demanding her husband’s removal from office. He’s been held by military authorities since then. Her appearance on the first day of the Muslim holiday of Eid el-Fitr, marking the end of Ramadan, appeared aimed at galvanizing support after the Muslim Brotherhood fell from power after just one year of Morsi’s rule.

Wearing a flowing veil that covered most of her body, Mahmoud spoke to the crowds gathered at a sit-in at Rabaah al-Adawiya mosque in Cairo’s Nasr City suburb. She recited a verse from the Koran before delivering what she described as ‘‘good news,’’ saying Egypt ‘‘is Islamic.’’

‘‘We are victorious,’’ Mahmoud told the crowd, saying protesters would overcome.

Initially, the Egyptian press suggested that Mahmoud was held with her husband in an undisclosed location along with one of her children.

Demonstrators at Nasr City cheered her arrival to the makeshift stage. She did not say where she had been since her husband’s ouster.

Morsi is held with his top aides, a number of whom have been transferred over the past days to a prison in southern Cairo. They face charges including instigating violence in various incidents that led to deadly street violence.

The protest camp is one of two sit-ins by the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies. Protesters demand Morsi’s reinstatement, restoration of the suspended constitution drafted under Morsi, and the return of Morsi’s Islamist-dominated legislative council, which was also disbanded.

They are only doing what WE ARE TOLD WE SHOULD DO when unhappy and wanting change!

Egypt’s interim leaders and the military say they’ll stick with a fast-track transition plan that calls for elections by early next year.

Critics believe the Brotherhood— one of the country’s oldest religious and political groups — is rejecting any mediation with the new government to spark a possibly bloody confrontation with the security forces.

That is a SICKENING INSINUATION by my jewspaper!

The Brotherhood publicly says the government has offered nothing, since it doesn’t want to restore Morsi to power.

Mohammed Aboul-Ghar, leader of Egyptian Socialist Democratic party whose members hold key posts in the new government, said the Brotherhood is holding its ground in hopes a crackdown could win them public sympathy.

I think they already have it based on the election results and protests.

‘‘The Muslim Brotherhood are political animals,’’ he said. ‘‘They are preparing for a comeback to power through ballot boxes. The way back is through winning support when bloodshed among its ranks turns the public against the Egyptian leadership.’’

Oh, heaven forbid they would try to use the BALLOT BOX in a DEMOCRATIC ELECTION!

Ballot boxes bathed in blood, of course!

--more--"

"Egypt police to besiege sit-ins within 24 hours" by Aya Batrawy |  Associated Press, August 11, 2013

CAIRO (AP) — Egyptian security forces will besiege two sit-ins by supporters of the country’s ousted president within 24 hours, police officials said Sunday, setting up a possible confrontation between the military-backed government and the thousands gathered there.

One police official suggested action against the sit-in protests by supporters of ousted President Mohammed Morsi could begin as early as daybreak Monday. Officials, who spoke anonymously in line with regulations, told The Associated Press they are also preparing for possible clashes that might erupt in reaction to the cordons they will set up barring anyone from entering.

Morsi’s supporters have said they will not leave the sit-ins until the president, ousted in a popularly supported coup July 3, is reinstated.

Efforts by the international community to end the standoff and find a peaceful resolution to the crisis failed. Egypt’s prime minister warned just ahead of the Muslim Eid al-Fitr holiday that ends Sunday that the government’s decision to clear the sit-ins was ‘‘irreversible.’’

Egypt’s new leadership says that the sit-ins and protests have frightened residents of Cairo, sparked deadly violence and disrupted traffic in the capital. Leaders of the sit-in say their protests have been peaceful and blame security forces and ‘‘thugs’’ for violence.

The Arab world’s most populous country is readying itself for more potential bloodshed. Already more than 250 people have killed in violence since Morsi’s ouster.

A last-ditch effort over the weekend by the Sunni Muslim world’s pre-eminent religious institution, Al-Azhar, also failed to push the two sides closer to reconciliation.

See: Sunday Globe Special: Morning Services at the Cairo Mosque

Mass rallies two weeks ago called by military leader Gen. Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi showed that a large segment of Egypt’s population backs action by the armed forces.

And they will get no sympathy from me when they are inside a jail cell.

The Interior Ministry had said earlier it would not clamp down on the protesters but will take gradual measures, which include the cordons. Other measures suggested include the use of water cannons and tear gas to minimize casualties.

Now they are worried about casualties?

The protesters, expecting an imminent security push to clear them out, have begun fortifying their positions.

At Egypt’s main protest camp in eastern Cairo, vendors say they have sold hundreds of gas masks, goggles and gloves to protesters readying themselves for police tear gas. A few meters (yards) away from the vendors, three waist-high cement and wooden barriers have been constructed by protesters to keep armored vehicles from crushing the sit-in.

The protests include many women and children. Organizations like UNICEF have cautioned against what they say is the deliberate use of children in Egypt who are ‘‘put at risk as potential witnesses to or victims of violence.’’ Morsi’s Muslim Brotherhood group says it cannot control whether families choose to stay camped out.

Then f*** UNICEF, too.

Some of the Islamist group’s top leaders have used the sit-ins as a cover to avoid arrest.

Using human shields, huh?

Others have already been detained and face charges of inciting violence. Morsi has been held at undisclosed locations since his ouster and is facing a criminal investigation.

Tensions between Muslims and Christians south of Cairo have been especially high since the Islamist president’s ouster. On Sunday, 15 people were wounded when a Muslim woman tried to stop a Christian neighbor from building a speed bump in front of her home. Officials say both families started fighting and assailants tossed gasoline bombs into four Christian homes and a local church.

--more--"

Also see: Egyptian police put off plans to put end to sit-ins

Did they ever end it:

"Egypt’s police kill 235 in attacks on dissidents" by David D. Kirkpatrick |  New York Times, August 15, 2013

CAIRO — Security forces killed more than 200 protesters and wounded hundreds of others Wednesday in a daylong assault on two sit-ins by Islamist supporters of the ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, that set off waves of violence in Cairo and across the country.

By afternoon, the interim government appointed by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi had declared a one-month state of emergency across the country, suspending the right to a trial or due process. The declaration returned Egypt to the state of virtual martial law that prevailed for three decades under former president Hosni Mubarak before he was forced to step down in 2011.

Mohamed ElBaradei, the interim vice president and a Nobel Prize-winning former diplomat who had lent his reputation to convincing the West of the military-appointed government’s democratic intentions, resigned in protest, a spokeswoman said.

By evening, the Egyptian Health Ministry said 235 civilians had been killed, and the Interior Ministry said 43 police officers had been killed. The number of injured was put at 900. But the large number of dead and critically injured Egyptians moving through various makeshift field hospitals in Cairo indicated that the final death toll would climb much higher.

At least one protester was burned alive in his tent. Many others were shot in the head and chest. Some of the dead appeared to be in their early teens, and young women assisting in a field hospital had stains on the hems of their abayas from the pools of blood on the floor.

The government imposed a 7 p.m. curfew across much of the country. Clashes and gunfire broke out even in well-heeled precincts of Cairo far from the sit-ins, and by the afternoon streets across the city were deserted. Outside Cairo, mobs of Islamists attacked a police station in the Giza governorate, burned down at least two churches in rural southern Egypt, and raged through the streets of Alexandria and other cities.

The scale and brutality of the attack — with armored vehicles, bulldozers, tear gas, snipers, and live ammunition — appeared to extinguish any hope of a political reconciliation that might persuade Morsi’s supporters to participate in a renewed democratic process under the auspices of the military-appointed government.

Instead, the crackdown was the clearest sign yet that the old Egyptian police state was re-emerging in full force....

It was a level of violence that might have crushed the January 2011 uprising that ousted Mubarak if military and police forces had unleashed it at that time, although back then the security forces faced a broader spectrum of protesters before the struggles over the political transition divided the Islamists and their opponents.

Tens of thousands of Morsi supporters had moved into the protest camps, many with their families. The dead included the 17-year-old daughter of a prominent Islamist lawmaker in the dissolved Parliament, Mohamed el-Beltagy....

There was no evidence that the Islamists had stockpiled weapons inside the encampment, as Egyptian state media had claimed.

Oh, the Egyptian government and its mouthpiece LIED?!

Instead, Islamists converging on Rabaa from around Cairo hurriedly broke pavement into rocks or mixed Molotov cocktails for hurling at the police. A few were armed with makeshift clubs, or sought to use garbage pail lids as shields.

Clubs, garbage cans, rocks, molotov cocktails -- against all that military firepower!

For a time in the late afternoon, the Islamists succeeded in pushing the police back far enough to create an almost safe passage to a hospital building on the edge of what remained of their camp. They had moved cars into place as fortifications, and two long rows of men were passing stones hand to hand to try to build new barricades.

How brave of them, and I was told the government gave them safe passage!

The passage was safe except for a roughly 20-yard stretch in front of the hospital doors, where snipers fired down from both sides. A series of Islamist marchers from around the city were able to enter the encampment, bolstering its numbers even as the shooting continued.

But shortly before dusk, soldiers and police officers launched a renewed push, seizing control of the hospital and tearing down the last tents and central stage erected at the core of the camp. The protesters had nowhere left to hide, said Morad Ali, a Muslim Brotherhood spokesman who had been inside the camp, and they were forced at last to flee.

--more--"

Related: Police move in, and blood and chaos fill the streets

"Death toll in Egypt clashes surpasses 600" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Alan Cowell |  New York Times, August 16, 2013

CAIRO — Violent new protests erupted across Egypt on Thursday following the military’s bloodiest crackdown on supporters of deposed Islamist president Mohammed Morsi. The death toll since Wednesday surpassed 600.

The military was defiant in the face of world condemnation and calls for restraint, including an angry response by President Obama and threats to suspend European economic aid. 

That's all for the public relations image.

The Interior Ministry warned protesters that police officers were authorized to use lethal force to protect themselves. The ministry also promised to punish any terrorist actions and sabotage after at least two government buildings were burned early Thursday....

That justifies the slaughter.

The scorched-earth assault by security forces Wednesday, which razed two protest camps in Cairo set up by Morsi’s supporters, was far more ferocious and extensive than the gradual pressure promised by the interim government that replaced him.

What, another government deception?

It was easily the most violent of the three deadly suppressions that have roiled Egypt since Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president, was forcibly removed from power by the armed forces six weeks ago, plunging the country into its worst crisis since the ouster of Morsi’s authoritarian predecessor, Hosni Mubarak, in the 2011 revolution.

Hundreds of Morsi’s supporters marched through Alexandria, Egypt’s second-largest city, clashing with the police. In Giza, across the Nile from Cairo, Islamists attacked provincial headquarters with Molotov cocktails and set it on fire. Islamists also blocked the main highway encircling Cairo.

In his first response to the mass killings, Obama strongly condemned the Egyptian government’s use of brute force and said the United States had canceled military exercises with Egypt’s armed forces scheduled for next month. 

To be rescheduled at a later date.

In Europe, some officials called for a suspension of aid by the European Union, and at least one member state, Denmark, cut off funds. France’s president summoned the Egyptian ambassador to condemn the violence.

A number of prominent international companies, including General Motors of the United States, suspended operations in Egypt. 

Now it's $eriou$! 

In Turkey, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan, an ally of Morsi’s, called for an early meeting of the UN Security Council to discuss what he labeled a massacre.

Mohamad Fathallah, the spokesman for Egypt’s Health Ministry, told the official Al Ahram website that, as of late Thursday, the casualties from the Wednesday violence totaled 638 dead and 3,994 injured....

Adly Mansour, the figurehead president appointed by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, declared a state of emergency Wednesday, returning Egypt to the state of virtual martial law that prevailed for three decades under Mubarak. The government imposed a 7 p.m. curfew in most of the country, closed the banks, and shut down all north-south train service. It modified the curfew Thursday to 9 p.m.

On Thursday morning, authorities continued to tamp down fires and clean up debris from razed protest camps, as many of the city’s residents got their first look at the extent of death and damage.

Many people complained that authorities were preventing them from obtaining permits to bury their dead, although the Muslim Brotherhood announced that several funerals had been held Thursday.

‘‘Bodies are getting decomposed,’’ said Hamdan Abdullah, who had traveled from the city of Fayoum to retrieve the body of his niece. “We only want to bury them. This is unfair.’’

Just one more insult.

At one landmark mosque, the names of the dead were scribbled on white sheets covering the bodies, some of them charred, and a list with 265 names was plastered on a wall. Heat made the stench from the corpses almost unbearable, as the ice brought in to chill the bodies melted and household fans offered little relief.

Weeping relatives filled the mosque’s courtyard and spilled into the streets. In a corner, a woman cradled the head of a slain man in her lap, fanning it with a paper fan. Nearby, an anguished man shouted, ‘‘God take revenge on you el-Sissi!’’ a reference to the powerful military chief.

Slumped over the body of his brother, Ihab el-Sayyed said the 24-year-old was getting ready for his wedding next week.

‘‘Last time I heard his voice was an hour or two before I heard of his death,’’ Sayyed said. 

That's what it is all about to me. The poor, suffering people.

Over the mosque speakers, a voice urged people to leave because their body heat was making the humid conditions worse inside the mosque, where posters of Morsi lay piled up in a corner.

--more--"

"Military uses force to end Cairo standoff; Unknown number of casualties after mosque attacked" by Kareem Fahim and Mayy el Sheikh |  New York Times, August 18, 2013

CAIRO — Soldiers fired on a Cairo mosque Saturday where supporters of the ousted president, Mohammed Morsi, were sheltering, turning a central thoroughfare into a war zone in a further sign that Egypt’s new military rulers are struggling to impose order days after security forces killed hundreds of antigovernment Islamists.

They fired on a mosque? That's BLASPHEMY!

Soldiers and policemen eventually stormed and cleared the Fath mosque, according to the state news agency. By day’s end, though, it was unclear if there were any casualties at the site and how many Islamists were arrested.

The standoff began Friday when Morsi’s supporters turned the mosque into a field hospital and a morgue during deadly clashes with the security services. It appeared the security forces this time had worked to try to negotiate an end to the standoff.

But the task of ending the siege was complicated by hundreds of civilian opponents of the Islamists who surrounded the mosque and beat Morsi’s supporters as they emerged, despite attempts by the soldiers to safely bring the Islamists out. The civilians, armed with rubber hoses, metal pipes, or wooden clubs, also attacked or detained journalists in the area.

It was not clear whether the vigilantes surrounding the mosque Saturday were actively collaborating with the security services, who have long relied on plainclothes enforcers to brutally break up demonstrations. 

They were arrested in accord with the new decree, right?

Some echoed the relentless campaign by government officials and the state news media to paint Morsi’s supporters as terrorists.

Civilians have added a layer of menace to Egypt’s violence, as so-called popular committees set up checkpoints in neighborhoods, searching cars and occasionally robbing their drivers. On Friday, armed men roamed Cairo freely, their allegiances — to Morsi or to the military — unclear. 

Oh, I'm sure this is much better than under the Muslim Brotherhood!

Several reporters were attacked by civilians outside the mosque Saturday, including a reporter for The Guardian, Patrick Kingsley, who wrote on Twitter that he was surrounded by a mob that “duffed me up a bit,” and that his laptop and cellphone were stolen before he was taken to a police station.

On Saturday, an adviser to Egypt’s interim president, Mustafa Hegazy, lashed out at the foreign news media and Western countries for ignoring violence by the Islamists, while warning “those who give international cover or financial cover” to terrorists. 

Too bad they helped put you in power then.

“Egypt is not a soft state,” he said. “It is not a follower. It has never been and will never be.”

The violence at the mosque came a day after battles throughout Egypt — between security forces and Islamists, and civilians fighting among themselves — left at least 173 people dead, according to an official count.

The standoff at the mosque was emblematic of Egypt’s wider chaos, with no end in sight to a feud that has devolved into violent conflict since security services killed hundreds of people at the sit-ins last week.

The violence has mostly been against one side, but whatever.

There were signs on Saturday that the civil strife could intensify, as the government proposed new measures aimed at further limiting the influence of the main Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, or possibly trying to eradicate it.

And yet they talk inclusion and all that other camel shit!

And, perhaps adding further energy to the cycle of bloodshed and revenge, the Brotherhood announced that the son of its spiritual leader, Mohammed Badie, had been killed during the fighting outside the mosque Friday. The movement had previously announced that the grandson of its founder, Hassan al-Banna, was killed during the same clashes, and the daughter of a senior Brotherhood leader was killed in an earlier attack.

The interim prime minister, Hazem el-Beblawi, submitted a proposal to the ministry that regulates nongovernmental groups to ban the Islamist movement, his spokesman said Saturday. The spokesman, Sherif Shawky, said the world had seen the “organized terrorism and sinful aggressions on the citizens” by a “small faction that lost its mind and was blinded by the lust for power.”

Those would be those who plotted and carried out the coup!

It was unclear if el-Beblawi was suggesting the Brotherhood could be allowed to maintain its political arm, the Freedom and Justice Party. Shawky asserted that the government was still interested in an “inclusive” political process, but only after “this homeland belongs to everyone,” he added.

(Blog editor just shaking his head as Orwell twirls at light speed in the coffin)

--more--"

"Egyptian forces kill 36 Islamist detainees; Fewer clashes; rulers, Islamists vow to fight on" by Rod Nordlund |  New York Times, August 19, 2013

CAIRO — The Egyptian government acknowledged that its security forces killed 36 Islamists in its custody on Sunday, as the country’s military leaders and Islamists vowed to keep up their fight over Egypt’s future.

Then it's MURDER!

The deaths were the fourth mass killing of civilians since the military took control July 3 but the first time so many had died in government custody.

The news of the deaths came on a day in which there appeared to be a pause in the street battles that have claimed more than 900 lives since Wednesday, most of them Islamists and their supporters gunned down by security forces. The Islamists took measures Sunday to avoid confrontations, including canceling several protests against the ouster of a democratically elected Islamist-led government.

While confirming the killings of the detainees Sunday, the Ministry of the Interior said the deaths came during an escape attempt by Islamist prisoners.

Pfffft!

But officials of the main Islamist movement, the Muslim Brotherhood, described the deaths as “assassinations,” and said the victims, which it said numbered 52, had been shot and tear-gassed through the windows of the locked prison van.

The killings were the latest indication that Egypt is moving into uncharted territory, with neither side willing to back down, Egyptians increasingly split about the way forward, and no obvious political solution in sight. The government is considering banning the Brotherhood, which might force the group underground but would not unravel it from the fabric of society it has been part of for eight decades.

Looks like they are in WELL-CHARTED TERRITORY to me!

Foreign governments also remain divided about the increasingly bloody showdown. US officials said they had taken preliminary steps to withhold financial aid to the Egyptian government, though not crucial military aid, and the European Union announced Sunday that it would “urgently review” its relations with the country, saying the interim government bore the responsibility for bringing violence to an end.

But the Egyptian military retains the support of the oil-rich states of the Persian Gulf, especially Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, which have pledged billions in aid to the new government.

They switched sides then because they were backing Morsi against the IMF. Either that or this is a Jewish lie.

Although it appeared that security forces were more restrained on Sunday — with no immediate reports of killings in the streets — Major General Abdel-Fatah el-Sissi, the country’s military leader, spoke out on national television in defiant and uncompromising tones, condemning the Islamists again as “terrorists,” but promising to restore democracy to the country.

Thank Allah for small favors.

The Muslim Brotherhood had announced that it would stage nine protest marches in and around Cairo on Sunday as part of its “week of departure” campaign that began Friday to protest the military’s deposing of the country’s first democratically elected president, Mohammed Morsi.

All but three of the marches were cancelled, and even those that continued were re-routed to avoid snipers who were waiting ahead, along with bands of pro-government thugs, the police, and the military.

The authorities, too, appeared to avoid aggressively enforcing martial law provisions, including a 7 p.m. curfew, that would have led to clashes with the protesters.

Oh, that is so nice of the murdering government.

Protesters who gathered at the al-Rayyan mosque in the Maadi area of Cairo had aimed to march from there to the Constitutional Court, Egypt’s supreme court, whose chief justice, Adly Mansour, has been appointed interim president by the country’s military rulers.

Marching in the 100 degree heat, protesters were fatalistic about the threats they faced. Mohammad Abdel Tawab, who said his brother was killed Friday at Ramses Square, had heard the reports of pro-government snipers ahead.

“They will kill us, I know, everybody knows, but it doesn’t matter,” he said.

A woman, Samira, dressed in an abaya with only her eyes visible, marched holding her 1-year-old daughter Sama. “Whatever will happen to us, will happen,” she said. “God has written it already.”

These people are so brave!

Protest leaders, however, were more cautious, and repeatedly rerouted the march at the last moment to avoid confrontations, turning down narrow lanes where residents in upper stories sprayed them with water. It was not always clear whether the gesture was in support or in contempt. 

I'm sure it cooled them down, so.... 

In the last mile, the leader of the march, Mohammad Salwan, ordered everyone to get on the metro train for the final approach to the court, and then protesters dissipated instead of trying to breach barricades set up by pro-military factions.

“We know there are snipers along the route, and we want to avoid losing any more lives,” he said.

Similarly, a protest in Giza was called off after it was threatened by military supporters, and the only other one to be held was in a strongly pro-Brotherhood area, Helwan, in south Cairo. Another march, to the presidential palace in Heliopolis, was also canceled.

“The leadership decided things were getting out of control and they couldn’t afford more casualties,” said a Brotherhood member who writes for one of the group’s publications and who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak for the organization.

Even on Saturday, which had seemed quiet, 79 people were killed across Egypt, according to the government press agency, MENA.

That is a quiet day?

Brotherhood leaders in particular have paid a heavy price, with the children of many top officials among the dead. They include Asmaa el-Beltagy, the son of a senior Brotherhood leader, Mohammed el-Beltagy, killed at Rabaa square Wednesday; Ammar Badie, 38, son of Brotherhood spiritual leader Mohammed Badie, shot during clashes Friday in Ramses Square; Habiba Abd el-Aziz, 26, the daughter of Ahmed Abd el-Aziz, the media consultant to Morsi, killed at Rabaa from a bullet wound to the head on Wednesday; and the grandson of the movement’s founder.

There were scant details on the prison killings Sunday, and no explanation for why the victims were inside a prison van and had reportedly taken a prison official hostage.

The Ministry of the Interior issued conflicting accounts of what had happened, at one point saying prisoners had taken a guard hostage, then saying militants attacked the prison van to free the prisoners, who were killed in the process, and then saying that tear gas used to suppress the escape caused the prisoners to suffocate to death. Later, the ministry claimed the deaths happened in the prison, not in the van.

That means you were being LIED TO, and I DON'T BELIEVE EITHER TALE!

The violence came a day after a speech in support of the Muslim Brotherhood by Turkey’s prime minister, Recep Tayyip Erdogan, who likened Egypt’s military leader, Sissi, to Syrian leader Bashar Assad.

“There are currently two paths in Egypt: those who follow the Pharaoh, and those who follow Moses,” he said.

Translation: Erdogan is worried the Turkish military will turn him into a sissi.

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"Egypt arrests Islamist group’s revered leader; Latest signal that old rules no longer apply" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Alan Cowell |  New York Times, August 21, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s authoritarian government has harassed and repressed the Muslim Brotherhood for most of its existence. But for the last three decades the authorities stopped short of touching the group’s revered leader, the supreme guide, who oversaw the country’s most effective social, political, and religious organization despite its outlawed status.

On Tuesday, the new government installed by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi provided the latest signal that it was breaking the old rules. Security forces armed with automatic rifles hunted down even the supreme guide, Mohammed Badie, 70, in a nondescript apartment where he had taken refuge, and then provided footage of the arrest to a friendly satellite network.

It was the capstone of a sweeping campaign of arrests and shootings that has damaged the Brotherhood’s core organization more than any crackdown in eight decades, sending the group into a confused retreat deeper underground than ever before.

“We came close to annihilation once under Nasser, but this is worse,” said Gehad el-Haddad, a Brotherhood official now on the run, referring to former president Gamal Abdel Nasser’s attempt to smash the group after he came to power in 1954. Communicating over the Internet to avoid surveillance, Haddad said Brotherhood members now “talk of “the good old days” under President Hosni Mubarak.

Related: Egypt's Evolving Revolution

With the arrest of Badie, most of the Brotherhood’s top leaders are in prison, along with the former president, Mohammed Morsi. Many of its second- or third-tier leaders are dead or missing, Haddad said, and those still at large are living on the run. They change locations every 24 hours, avoid showing their faces at demonstrations or public places, and stay off cellphones for fear that they might be tracked.

Good idea now that we know about the NSA spying.

Many are consumed by the loss of those killed or missing in the crackdown, which left dead more than 1,000 Morsi supporters and the children of several Brotherhood leaders — including Badie, who lost his son. Communication to the group’s grass-roots network has been all but cut off, Brotherhood officials and local members said.

“Asking about the structure of the organization now is like asking a dying man how his career is doing,” one Brotherhood leader said, speaking on the condition of anonymity for fear of arrest.

Devastated by the assault, the group has backed off its vow of a “million martyrs,” ending its six-week campaign of organizing demonstrations and sit-ins against the military takeover that ousted its ally, Morsi. Instead, on Tuesday, the group began calling Morsi supporters to organize their own “decentralized” protests.

More street demonstrations or sit-ins “are always an option if the coup leaders’ frenzy goes down,” Haddad said, but the Brotherhood “held the banner for 48 days” and “it is with the Egyptian people now.”

The Brotherhood’s retreat is a victory for el-Sissi. At least for now, it appears that his new government’s brutal force has begun to take control of the streets of the capital. But in the long term, the Brotherhood retains deep roots in Egypt, especially in the countryside, and by forcing it back underground the military-backed government virtually eliminated any hope of fulfilling its public pledges to include it in the political process.

It has also foreclosed the chance to use the Brotherhood’s more pragmatic leadership to channel and control the broader and more fractious Islamist movement, as Mubarak once did. And it risks further alienating a generation of Islamists, or driving some to violence.

It was in Egyptian jails during earlier crackdowns, historians say, that Brotherhood members disillusioned with its nonviolent politics nurtured the ideology that now guides Al Qaeda.

That would be Zawahiri and his crew.

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"Mubarak to be transferred to house arrest" by Rod Nordland and Mayy el Sheikh |  New York Times, August 22, 2013

CAIRO — Egypt’s military-appointed government ordered former president Hosni Mubarak transferred from prison to house arrest late Wednesday after a court said he could no longer be held legally behind bars.

So when does he assume the presidency again? After a rigged vote?

The order, announced by the Cabinet, did not specify when the transfer would take place or where Mubarak would be moved, but said it could happen as early as Thursday. Mubarak, who ruled Egypt for 30 years, has spent the past 17 months in prison.

Mubarak’s release from prison to a much milder form of incarceration injects a potentially volatile new element into the political crisis that has been convulsing the country in the six weeks since the military ousted the man who replaced Mubarak, the Muslim Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi, Egypt’s first freely elected president. Morsi remains under indefinite detention in an undisclosed location with no access to legal counsel.

The announcement regarding Mubarak came after an Egyptian court ruled that all appeals by prosecutors to keep him locked in prison had been exhausted.

An official in the office of his lawyer, Farid el-Deeb, said the firm expected that Mubarak, 85, would be released within a matter of hours.

It was unclear why the Cabinet decreed Mubarak must remain under house arrest. But under the state of emergency declared after Morsi was deposed, the military-appointed government can exert unlimited powers in the country’s easily manipulated judicial system.

But his villa is a hell of a lot better than prison!

Even some of Mubarak’s opponents expected his release....

The juxtaposition of leniency for Mubarak while Morsi remains in custody could test the support for the military-led government among the many anti-Mubarak activists who later sided with the decision to depose Morsi and crack down on the Muslim Brotherhood.

Reached by phone and told that Mubarak’s release from prison looked imminent, Ahmed Maher, the founder of the 6th of April youth group that helped start the revolution, was silent for several moments. “I’m shocked,” he said.

Young, western manipulated fool.

But he saw no likelihood of street protests because opponents of the government had been cowed into silence by widespread killings and arrests.

“If anybody even thinks of objecting, they will suffer,” he said. “If anybody dares express opposition against the government or the president or the military, they’ll be accused of treason and called a Muslim Brother in hiding.”

In Cairo’s Tahrir Square, where protesters once hung banners and nooses demanding Mubarak’s execution, public opinion appeared to have moved on. No one seemed to care much about Mubarak’s fate. The only ones who did appeared to be Western journalists looking for reactions.

I don't know if I believe that about the Egyptians. 

There was more concern from the Tamarod movement, the organization that ran a petition drive calling for Morsi’s ouster and calling for the June 30 demonstrations that led the military to depose him.

The group blamed Morsi for not having more aggressively prosecuted Mubarak and his subordinates for the deaths of protesters.

Unreal! 

They force the guy out by being tools and then they complain!!

--more--"

"Mubarak leaves prison, in house arrest at hospital; Islamists protest as overhaul set on constitution" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Rod Nordland |  New York Times, August 23, 2013

CAIRO — The left-leaning April 6 Group, which spearheaded the 2011 uprising against Mubarak, called off a planned protest against Mubarak’s release for fear that Morsi’s Islamist supporters might exploit it for their own cause or that security forces might crush it in their drive to suppress the Islamists. 

I give up on the obviously idiotic April 6 movement. That has to be a CIA operation!

An Egyptian court granted a lawyer’s petition for Mubarak’s release Wednesday night, but the decision to let him go was essentially political. The new authorities appointed by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi declined to follow the Morsi government’s practice of raising new charges to keep Mubarak behind bars. Instead, the new officials used the expanded police powers that they have granted themselves to keep Mubarak under house arrest without charges, assuring that he does not begin speaking out publicly or stirring up trouble....

If they were worried about stirring up trouble why did they let him out?

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"Egypt’s military heads off protests; Demonstrators are few and wary" by David D. Kirkpatrick and Rod Nordland |  New York Times, August 24, 2013

CAIRO — A tight lockdown on Cairo by Egyptian security forces Friday all but squelched a planned day of protests by the Muslim Brotherhood and allies, suggesting that the military government had gained a decisive edge in its battle against supporters of the ousted president, Mohammed Morsi.

Armored military vehicles moved through the streets around dawn, unrolling coils of barbed wire across major thoroughfares encircling mosques where protests have often broken out after prayers on Fridays. A few marquee mosques were closed, an extraordinary step, forcing neighbors to go elsewhere for prayers.

Tanks and armored personnel carriers took up positions at bridges, tunnels, and other key intersections. Soldiers and police officers sat in folding chairs with automatic rifles across their laps, shooing journalists and other pedestrians away from potential flash points.

The relatively small number of demonstrators who did turn out were so cowed by the violence of the crackdown that they took steps to avoid even the smallest confrontation, gathering in one place or moving in circles on a few blocks to avoid approaching army barricades. Few blocked traffic.

The Egyptian people have been TOTALLY HUMILIATED!

“It is like an occupation,” Ismail Sayed Mohamed, 47, said at a demonstration of a few hundred people who gathered in a small space under an overpass near Giza Square, across the river from Cairo. “People want to go to the streets to defend their freedom, but they are afraid. They are killing us.”

It was the latest sign that the crackdown against “terrorism” called for by General Abdel-Fattah el-Sissi, chief of the armed forces, appears to have broken the back of the Brotherhood, the Islamist organization allied with the ousted president, which has spearheaded opposition to the military takeover.

Egyptian security forces have killed more than a thousand and arrested at least as many in the nine days since they dispersed two Brotherhood-led sit-ins by tens of thousands of Morsi supporters. The police have arrested the Brotherhood’s top spiritual leaders and much of its governing board, forcing a rushed and secret selection of new leadership. Its officials say most of its second- and third-tier leaders are dead or missing, and on Friday a spokesman was arrested.

For the first time since the ouster of President Hosni Mubarak in 2011, many demonstrators were afraid to give their name, and some denied, unconvincingly, an affiliation with the Muslim Brotherhood or any Islamist group.

--more--"

"President of Egypt gets show of support" by Hamza Hendawi and Maggie Michael |  Associated Press, June 22, 2013

CAIRO — More than 100,000 supporters of Egypt’s Islamist president staged a show of force Friday ahead of massive protests later this month by the opposition, chanting “Islamic revolution!” and warning of a new and bloody bout of turmoil.

Peaceful protesters staging a show of "force." 

Can the bias of my jewspaper be any more blatant?

Adding to the combustible mix, comments by the US ambassador that were interpreted as critical of the opposition’s planned protests sparked outrage, with one activist telling the diplomat to “shut up and mind your own business.”

Friday’s mass gathering was ostensibly called by Islamists to denounce violence, but it took on the appearance of a war rally instead.

I can't read this Jewish shit anymore, folks. Sorry.

Participants, many of them bearded and wearing robes or green bandanas, vowed in chants to protect President Mohammed Morsi against his opponents. Some who addressed the crowd spoke of smashing opposition protesters on June 30, the anniversary of Morsi’s assumption of power....

Most participants were bused in from elsewhere in the Egyptian capital or from far-flung provinces. They waved Egypt’s red, white, and black flag as well as the green banner of the Muslim Brotherhood and posters of the president.

Brotherhood members in red helmets carrying white plastic sticks manned makeshift checkpoints, searching bags and checking IDs as demonstrators streamed in.

Friday’s rally was the latest evidence of the schism that has torn Egypt apart in the more than two years since autocrat Hosni Mubarak was ousted in a popular uprising. That division has plunged the country into deadly street battles and taken on a religious character after Morsi took office a year ago as the nation’s first freely elected leader. In the year since, Egypt has been divided into two camps, with the president and his Islamist backers in one, and secular, liberal Egyptians, moderate Muslims, women, and minority Christians in the other.

The past year has also been marred by political unrest and a sinking economy. Morsi’s opponents charge that he and his Brotherhood have been systematically amassing power, excluding liberals, secular groups, and even ultraconservative Salafi Muslims.

A persistent security vacuum and political turmoil have scared away foreign investors and tourists.

You know, the really important concerns.

Egypt’s battered economy has continued to slide, draining foreign currency reserves and worsening fuel shortages and electricity cuts.

I'm sure that will all change with the new military government and IMF enslavement, I mean loan.

--more--"

Also see: Unrest delivers huge blow to Egyptian tourism 

I think the Egyptians have a bit more on their mind at the moment.

"Companies react to the bloodshed in Egypt; EMC, others move to protect their employees as country boils" by Erin Ailworth |  Globe Staff, August 20, 2013

As protesters, government forces, and others continue to clash in Cairo following the military takeover, officials at Hopkinton-based EMC Corp. are drawing on lessons learned during the beginning of the Arab Spring, in 2011, to keep employees in Egypt safe.

All EMC employees in Egypt are working remotely from home for the time being, and the company has increased security around its facility in Cairo, spokeswoman Christine Carosella said.

EMC is one of several companies with operations in Egypt that are taking steps to protect employees from the extreme violence that has broken out between the military-led government and supporters of the deposed Islamist president, Mohammed Morsi, who was ousted from power in July.

It's all on one side, but that's not the impression the jewspaper gives you. They imply equality.

The Waltham-based defense contractor Raytheon Co., which has more than 500 employees in the Middle East and offices in Egypt, according to its website, had no comment.

The company does significant business with Egypt, including contracts to provide technology inside F-16 fighter jets purchased by the Egyptian Air Force and to outfit Egyptian Navy vessels with weapons systems.

Obomber cancelled 'em.

Hittite Microwave Corp., which financial filings show opened a 5,400-square-foot design center in Cairo in September 2011, did not respond to requests for comment.

The Chelmsford company designs circuits and other instrumentation for a variety of applications, including digital, radio frequency, and microwave.

Egypt is not one of the state’s top export markets, but Massachusetts exported nearly $60 million worth of products to the country in 2012, federal data show. The state sent roughly $50 million worth of products between Jan. 1 and June 30.

The most recent wave of violence began last Wednesday, when the Egyptian military attacked two campsites set up by Morsi supporters. Hundreds were killed and thousands wounded as bulldozers leveled the camps and fleeing protesters were hit with bullets and tear gas.

The Egyptian generals have been hanging around the Israelis way too long!

Morsi was Egypt’s first freely elected president following the 2011 uprising that forced Hosni Mubarak to abandon his decades-long authoritarian reign.

More violence followed over the weekend and through Monday as protesters and security forces continued to battle.

Meanwhile, an Egyptian court has ordered Mubarak released on grounds that the legal limit for holding someone in custody pending trial has expired. His release could trigger another outpouring of unrest by Morsi’s people.

EMC said that as long as the violence continues, it will monitor the situation to “ensure the safety and security of our employees and that there is no business disruption of services to our customers.”

Meanwhile, several international companies that had shuttered their facilities in Egypt following the outbreak of violence last week are now reopening, including the chemical company BASF, automaker General Motors, and oil company Royal Dutch Shell.

So much for protesting and boycotting the murderous Egyptian regime.

According to e-mails from BASF, which employs about 100 in offices in Cairo and Alexandria and at a production facility in Sadat City, the company shut down Thursday but resumed operations Sunday.

General Motors, which employs more than 1,400 Egyptians, reopened Sunday after closing its Cairo office Wednesday and halting production operations at a nearby plant.

“The safety and security of our employees remains important to us,” the company said in an e-mail. “We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”

So will I!

--more--"

Related: EMC restructuring plan will cut 1,004 jobs